I had a going-away Friday night out at The Place. It was karaoke night, almost 20 folks from work came out and we had a blast. Pictures are up at GoingAway. Tomorrow I’m taking Laci back to the vet to get her teeth cleaned, getting my car serviced before the road trip, getting my shots and tying up a couple more loose ends at work. Friday I’ll be on my way to Angie’s for the weekend, then on to NC on Monday.

Tuesday was M9 training, which I’d also shot expert on in the past. The shooting positions for the M9 were much easier to deal with while wearing all the gear than the M4 positions. I shot expert again, so that was nice.

Today I finished up almost everything I need to do. I had my final medical appointment and got issued my malaria meds and chemical/biological antidotes. The only thing I have left to do is the chemical warfare training. The readiness office is trying to get me in the class on Tuesday, hopefully they can.

I took my dog to the vet today too for her annual checkup before she goes to live with my ex-wife for a year. The vet thinks she has hypothyroidism since she’s fat and lazy. She’s been on Iams weigh-control food for almost 2 years and eats less than the recommended amount for her size. The vet said it’s common in older dogs. The results of the blood test will be back tomorrow, so she may be taking a pill every day in addition to the eye drops. Her teeth are also in bad shape, she’ll have to go back in next week to get them cleaned and everything.

My smallpox vaccine is slowly healing. It’s been about two and a half weeks since I got it and it’s still draining fluid and itching like crazy. I try to keep a regular band-aid on it as much as possible so it can get some air and dry out, but I’ve been PTing every morning to get ready for combat skills and I put a waterproof Tegaderm pad on it for that which doesn’t breathe so well. I took a few pics of it, they’re HERE. I’ll be adding more to the album every couple days as it heals. I got my second anthrax shot as well, it was much more painful than the first one. There’s a big red welt that’s sore and itches where I got it. I get to get another one in two weeks. Can’t wait.

So about my combat arms training. We have to qualify on the M4 Carbine and the Beretta M9 Pistol before we go to combat skills training. The deployment office for our unit is the only one who can schedule the training. They’ve known about the deployment for at least as long as I have, probably even a few days longer. Time’s getting short since I’m leaving on the 25th to head home, so I’ve been asking them twice a week for the last few weeks about getting it scheduled and they keep telling me they’re working on it. I’m not sure how involved it is to schedule, but I imaging a call or email to the combat arms folks is all it takes. Fast forward to today, we had a group commanders call at 1330 that finished about 1445 and we were released after that. At about 1530 I get a call from my supervisor who just happens to be working a 1400-2300 shift this week (we normally don’t have this shift, just started it on Monday) saying that the deployments office just called and I’m scheduled for M4 training on Monday and M9 training on Tuesday. This is great news, except I have to get to the readiness squadron to pick up a gas mask, body armor and web gear before the training. Training starts at 0745 on Medina Annex, which is about a 20 minute drive from the readiness squadron which opens on Monday at 0700, so not enough time to get it then. That leaves me 30 minutes to get back in uniform and drive to the readiness squadron today to get my stuff. I made it with a few minutes to spare, but I wasn’t happy about it. My troop that’s deploying with me got there at 1603 and had to convince them to let him in the door.

There was a minor fiasco involving getting my leave approved, but I’m not going to take the time to tell that story. It would have never been an issue except deployments told me I wasn’t authorized leave en route to combat skills, which turned out to be wrong. If they wouldn’t have told me that I could have put the leave on the assignment rip and it wouldn’t have needed commander’s approval.

So that’s all that’s been going on here, I’ll be home in NC on the 28th.

My first stop was the lab: I needed an HIV test and some kind of titer done. The tech was really nervous, his hands were shaking, he kept dropping things, and he rubbed my arm forever to make sure the vein was where he thought it was. He opened up an alcohol pad and was about to clean my arm with it when another tech told him it was the wrong kind. I don’t know what was on the first one… When he actually got down to sticking me he did fine, didn’t hurt any more than usual and he got the vein the first try. He forgot to put a gauze pad on the spot before he pulled out the needle thing so blood went running down my arm… I told him he was more nervous than I was, but that he did fine. He seemed a little relieved then.

Next I went to immunizations. I got a Hep b shot, a typhoid shot, and my first anthrax shot. The anthrax and typhoid went in my right arm since as the tech said, “The anthrax is going to hurt now and the typhoid is going to hurt later” and I still needed to get my smallpox vaccine on my left arm. The anthrax shot did hurt then, just felt like somebody was pinching the crap out of me. And the typhoid definitely hurts now, it feels like I got punched in the arm. A lot.

The smallpox vaccine I had to come back for at 1pm. It wasn’t bad at all, 15 sticks with a bifurcated needle. I have to try not to touch the area and keep it covered for the next 30 days, so it’s going to be a pain in the ass. I have to go back in a week to make sure it took.

The last thing I did today was take a hearing test. The airman put me in a little sound- and air conditioning-proof booth. I sat there with the headphones on and the button in my hand for about 5 minutes and the test never started… I was getting pretty warm so I took my top off. A couple minutes later and still no test, so I pushed the door open to get some air. The airman was there at the computer and I told her the test hadn’t started. She said it’s starting now and pushed the door back shut. It was funnier in person… I passed the hearing test and called it a day.

Now I have to go back in a week to get the smallpox checked, then go back the week after that to get my 2nd anthrax shot. Two weeks after that there’s another anthrax shot, then I think six months after that is the last one…

The reporting instructions list all the training we have to accomplish before we get to Ft Bragg along with everything we’re required to bring with us and a list of everything we’ll be issued there. The list of stuff we’re required to bring is pretty small, it’ll probably all fit in one duffel. The list of stuff they’re going to issue us there is a lot bigger and includes body armor, helmet and weapons along with a ton of other crap. We’re authorized 4 bags and a weapon case, but it’s going to be a pain carrying 4 duffels and a weapon case. Oh well, I’m not the first one to do it and I’m sure I won’t be the last.

It also mentions that we’ll be expected to be able to complete a 2 mile march in body armor and helmet with a full combat load (~50 lbs) and weapons on the first day of training. We did a 4 mile march a few weeks back with a 30 lb load and it wasn’t bad at all. I’m still going to need to step up the PT regimen a bit before I leave though. I’d like to be in the shape I was when I ran the half marathon, but I don’t have the time to train that much. I can run 4 miles now, I’m going to increase that by a half mile per week until I leave, so I should be up to 7 or 8 before I leave. That should put me in good enough shape to make it through CST and I’m hoping with the stress, boredom and food in Afghanistan I’ll be able to come back in much better shape.

I’m still looking forward to going, though!

The briefing was a big disappointment.  I was expecting to get some information specific to my training and deployment, but it was just a lot of generic info from all the different base agencies about the services they provide.  There was a representative from finance, the Red Cross, deployment medicine, mental health, the education office, etc.  There were folks attending the briefing that were headed to all different places, Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Curacao…  So really no new information at all.  I did get a checklist that I have to complete before I go, though, so at least I know what I can do next.

I talked to the SSgt that was running the show there today and found out that I could get specific information about my training via reporting instructions published on a web site called AEF Online.  So when I got back to the office I looked it up and of course the reporting instructions for Combat Skills Training at Ft. Bragg aren’t published yet!  There are RIs up for several other Combat Skills locations, just not Bragg.  I’ll keep checking it until it finally shows up.  I really just want to find out if I’ll be leaving straight from Bragg to go to Afghanistan or if I have to come back to Lackland first.  I’m hoping to be able to leave straight from Bragg so I don’t have to mess with carting all the gear and weapons back here just to turn around and leave again 2 weeks later.

So that was today, until the reporting instructions are published I’ll just be getting stuff on my checklist done.  There’s a lot of stuff to do, so I’ll be busy!

I ended up with about half of what was on the list and the rest was back ordered.  I got 2 pairs of steel-toe desert boots, about 12 pairs of socks, 6 tshirts (the wrong size…), 2 thermal underwear bottoms (the tops were back ordered), several different pairs of gloves, a CamelBak, earplugs, insect repellent, 4 ABU shirts (the pants were back ordered) and some other stuff I can’t remember.  Also back ordered were the ABU Gortex parka and pants, which are what I was really looking forward to getting.  All together it’s about $1200 worth of stuff.

Tomorrow I have a pre-deployment training briefing where I should get some more information about Combat Skills training.  Right now all I know are the dates and the location.  It’s at Ft. Bragg from early August through late October.

I’ll update again tomorrow when I find out more!